Lexmark Fourth-Quarter Profit Falls

Lexmark International, the No. 2 U.S. computer printer maker, reported Thursday lower fourth-quarter net income as earnings were hurt by continued market weakness.

Lexington, Ky.-based Lexmark, second in the competitive printer market after leader Hewlett-Packard, said revenues for the current first quarter were likely to be flat with a year-ago, but down sequentially from the fourth quarter due to normal seasonal trends. It forecast earnings per share within the current range of Wall Street estimates.

Lexmark said net income fell to $36.8 million, or 27 cents a share, compared to $55.0 million, or 42 cents per share, a year ago.

Revenues were $1.15 billion, up 5 percent from the same period the prior year.

"We expect gross profit margin to improve sequentially due to a higher mix of supplies, and earnings per share to be in the range of 43 to 53 cents," Lexmark Chief Executive Paul Curlander said in a statement.

The Wall Street consensus for the first quarter is for earnings of 48 cents a share, with a range of 41 to 57 cents, according to First Call.

Copyright 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

Reuters shall be not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

Doron Kempel says selling hyper-convergence can be challenging for solution providers, but success will come from taking business from competitors that are unprepared or hesitant to embrace the technology.